Thanks so much for the rundown on the current and intense efforts to use gene-knockouts, etc to identify what is going wrong, in what combinations of genetic expression, and the use of new technologies to asses current disease models for PD.

A lot of talent is working hard in this "decade (and counting) of the brain" to use techniques and knowledge only recently acquired to understand the mechanisms and miscues involved in producing what we call "PD." Some may look at the daunting nature of this task and say "not in my lifetime."

But I try to remind myself that what we knew about "PD" when MJF testified before Arlen Specter's Labor-HHS subcommittee in 1999 pales in comparison with what we know now. Is is going to be a longer road than we thought back then? Yes. But had we not poured so much money into PD and other neurological research over the last decade it would simply have taken us that much longer to get to what know today. In other words, we have to overcome whatever obstacles we encounter, whether we knew they existed or not. That's why we do research. So I say let's get on with it.